World Development Movement blog

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer

From Copenhagen

Last night I had my first decent sleep since Sunday. Having been stuck in the Bella Centre for most of the week, yesterday was the first time I had been out in daylight since last Monday.

Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.

David Johnstone, WDM south-west London group member, writes from Copenhagen

You can't walk far in Copenhagen without being reminded that the conference is in town. Virtually every billboard makes a claim of environmental virtue.

At Norreport Station, one of the city's main transport interchanges, advertisements for Danish wind energy company Vestas plastered all over the walls proclaim them the planet's saviours. The workers laid off when they closed their factory on the Isle of Wight earlier this year may be able to give a fuller picture.

Tim Jones, used to be policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

On Monday our climate debt invoice was confiscated inside the negotiations for being ‘too political’. This seemed odd; a politics Geiger counter would explode if it were in the Danish capital. We concluded it was less a case of ‘too political’ than too ‘the wrong kind of political’.

To be more in tune with those in power, we decided to get on message on Tuesday. As negotiators moved from room to room we offered them some World Development Movement carbon cake.

Kate Blagojevic, used to be press officer, writes from Copenhagen

There is outrage in Copenhagen over a lot of different issues that include tar sands; climate finance; the World Bank; coal; nuclear; carbon trading and the very imminent plight of the small island states. There are of course a lot of sensitivities, politics and high feeling amongst the thousands of people from all over the world who have recently descended on this small city for an intense two weeks of negotiations.

Tim Jones, former WDM policy officer, writes from Copenhagen

Along the streets of Copenhagen there are happily parked bikes with no locks. With my locked bike stolen a few weeks ago, I am jealous of the bike safety which permeates the Danish capital.

The main news in Copenhagen is from Brussels. Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy are making the headlines with ‘€2.4 billion [£1.5 billion] a year to help poor countries tackle climate change’.

Kirsty Wright, WDM climate justice campaigner, writes from Copenhagen

Day three of the official negotiations and things are starting to heat up. The leaking of the Danish text yesterday – which exposes the paltry deal that rich countries were hoping to put on the table – has really shifted the tone in Copenhagen.